Big Family, Little Garden

We always had a large garden growing up. Ironically, I ate almost everything out of the garden – except tomatoes. I hated tomatoes.

I enjoy tomatoes now. Perhaps I’ve matured, or my taste buds have.

I assumed we’d have a garden, when I dreamed of husband… and my children-less family.

Little did I realize we’d build on land that was almost 85% CLAY. {Not very fertile ground, if you catch my drift.} The best soil made us able to have a septic system… and I believe that was by the grace of God. This dirt is not the greatest.

Enter in: Square Foot Gardening!

I’ve read about it in lots of magazines, and passed by books on the subject – but after reviewing what unit studies to do with my kids, I was sure NEXT SPRING we’d build a garden and learn about it in depth.

I ran the idea past my husband before the homeschool conference… “it would be a great way for the kids to learn more about their food source, take part in building the box, getting the dirt, planting and caring for the plants…”

He laughed. “Oh sure, we can do that… but next year – right?”

“Yes,” I assured him. I knew we didn’t have the time to do one THIS year.

As Facebook would have it, I saw some neat square foot gardens my friends had made this spring… and they looked so cute, it seemed so simple. Surely we could do this. A few boards, some screws… some dirt and seeds – and wa-lah! Right?

Or not.

Did I mention I have OCD? When I get an idea… watch out. It’s probably going to happen soon, vs. later.

Really this wasn’t that difficult… but a few more therapy sessions of encouraging my husband to get the wood, build the box and we’d take care of the rest… I wanted his blessing. So we set out on a Saturday and collected our supplies. I brought my iPad so we could look at the Pioneer Woman’s blog again.

We made our box over the course of a few days. Not because it was difficult, but because we had other projects going on. Next, we filled it up with a mix of top soil, manure, compost and peat moss that we picked up from the local horticulture store (we did this part while my husband was out-of-town – to make it painless for him!)

The kids were all about helping unload. This is one of my comical children appearing as if I’m crushing her. They were good workers!

The older kids helped me, and we mixed it as we dumped it, and then used string to mark off our square feet to begin planting!

They are so stoked about their garden, and it’s been a great learning experience so far!

We’re not even one week in, and our cucumbers have peeked their green leaves through the soil! The kids are so excited!! Stay tuned to see if anything else grows!

“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”